Our Urban Town a Publication of the Staten Island Urban CenterOur Urban Town is a quarterly publication that shares thought provoking, intellectually provocative, community news, ideas and opinions from Staten Island's urban neighborhoods.

#reSIStah issue​in celebration of women's history month

​the Woke reSIStah Issue Our Urban Town publishes thought provoking ideas, intellectually provocative reflections, community news, and opinions from the very people in the community who passionately live and/or work with these issues. In this Woke ReSistah Issue, Our Urban Town shares the writings of women activists on Staten Island as a tribute to the contributions of women right now in this borough. Due to space constraints, these are just a small sample of women activists doing the work on the island, but our hope is that these writings inspire readers to be or continue to be activists, to share real stories, advocate for real solutions and to fight for real for the things they believe in. In the era of WOKE and RESIST, it’s our time to be activists everywhere we go and in everything we do.Kelly Vilar,​Editor of Our Urban Town & ​CEO of Staten Island Urban Center

I first moved to Staten Island almost fifteen years ago. I moved to Bulls Head then all the way to Annandale in the south shore. I was just seventeen years old.

Growing up as a teenager in a vibrant Brooklyn neighborhood, I was dispirited to see that my new neighborhood across the Verrazano Bridge was not as colorful and consisted mostly of white people. In Sheepshead bay, my friends came from all backgrounds -- Mexican, Italian, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Peruvian, etc. -- and we loved going to Coney Island, Manhattan Beach and downtown Brooklyn. Conversely, my first impression of Staten Island was like living in a sleepy small town in upstate New York.

Over the past few years, however, I have seen the Staten Island Latino community growing and becoming more diverse and unified, especially as immigrant communities start to feel at home on the greenest borough.

Staten Island currently has the smallest immigrant population (99,000) of all the city's boroughs, although it sustained "the highest percentage growth among the foreign-born, increasing 36 percent" between 2000 and 2011, the city planning department has reported.

About 20,000 Mexican immigrants call Staten Island home, and many of them have settled in Port Richmond. According to census figures, it is the fastest-growing immigrant population in the borough, expanding 140 percent from 2000 to 2010. And it was Mexican and immigrant businesses that shut down in the "Day without Immigrants" that saw gates down across Victory Boulevard and Port Richmond Avenue demonstrating a growing influence of Latino political and economic power. ​As a Dreamer -- or undocumented immigrant brought to the country as a child -- it was disheartening that my borough voted in favor of Donald Trump in the 2016 election. People were tired of the status quo in Washington, including myself, but to see a majority of whites vote for a man who threatened our healthcare, vilified immigrants like me, and disrespected woman reminding me how I felt about Staten Island ten years ago. ​We all have different politics and we are still on working on them but what gives me great joy is that Staten Island is getting more colorful year by year and finally feels like it’s part of New York City, the city of immigrants.

Our urban towns are facilitated with every single thing. The urban people mostly miss the fresh air and morning breakfast full of energy. The urban people are also font of the study facilities at every corner of the place.